Toy-Kraft toys no longer simple

Published: January 30, 2001 12:00 AM

In what is expected to be one of its most colorful displays, the Wayne County Historical Society will present an exhibit of products manufactured by the Wooster Toy-Kraft Co. opening on Feb. 6.

The exhibit is sponsored by Toy-Kraft XX 2000, which is now reproducing the simple wooden toys that were beloved by children all over the country from 1916 when the business started under the guidance of George and Ann Hisler until 1950 when changing times and tastes pushed it over the edge of bankruptcy.

While the hundreds of pieces slated for display are drawn from several privately held collections, organizer David Broehl said there is room for involvement by anyone who owns Toy-Kraft toys they would like to exhibit. Broehl said people with original Toy-Kraft items are invited to take them to the main office of the Wayne County Historical Society at 546 E. Bowman St. daily between 2 and 4:30 p.m. before Saturday.

Broehl said he hoped people taking in Toy-Kraft examples might include what information is known about them, who once played with it and whether it was handed down in a local family.

All items, Broehl said, will be displayed in locked cases and insured.

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Broehl said the historical society would also like to hear from any former employees of Wooster Toy-Kraft who could provide anecdotes or add information about the operations of the company. The exhibit will run through May.

According to Margo Broehl, a Wooster attorney who is having the old Toy-Kraft toys reproduced by a local firm, The Toy-Kraft Co. operated at 655 Cushman St. in the red brick building that is today occupied by Friendly Wholesale. It created a wide variety of painted wooden toys that were sold primarily to brokers in New York City, then marketed nationwide. However, the company's dumpsters where seconds were thrown were well-known to Wooster youngsters, who fished items from the trash barrels and took them home. Those are the pieces that most frequently turn up today.

The business was so prosperous, Broehl said, it sailed through the Great Depression with no interruption in its operations, and when World War II broke out it was designated by the government as an essential industry, and therefore did not shut down.

In the 1940s, Toy-Kraft entered into a licensing agreement with Walt Disney Studios in California to produce toys that incorporated some of its cartoon characters. A number of those toys will also be displayed during the exhibit.

The late 1940s, Margo Broehl said, saw the increasingly embattled company sold to Bauer Manufacturing Co. of Wooster which attempted to modernize it by installing a new spray paint system and a conveyor belt. The improvements, however, caused more problems than they solved, and ultimately the company closed.